how to optimize battery life?

plotting_homelab@lemmy.world to Android@lemmy.world – 29 points –

So I recently bought a new honor magic 5 pro. My last phone the Huawei p20 pro was around 5 years old and started to show significantly less battery life. So I want to use this phone again for 5 years. But now I wonder should I keep the battery around 50% (65-35) and charge twice as often or should I 80-20 and charge once every two days? Is there any science that proves one is better than the other? Thank you for your information and sources.

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This is all anecdotal, so take it as you will. At some point in the past I used to be careful to do 80–20, or even 70–30 when possible. It was usually a pain, because I didn't get the full benefit of the battery, and I was always worried I might go above or below my targets. I still had to replace a battery after 2 years.

Then, with my previous phone, I decided not to worry about that and just charge whenever. The vast majority of the time I charged to 100% using fast charge, albeit not overnight. I had that phone for 4 years and it was only in the last year that I felt the battery had got worse. That last year was also after a big software update.

With my current phone, I'm doing 80–20 again—but more often 85–35—without fast charging. A year and half in and the battery has definitely degraded. I have easy access to a charger most of the time, and I use a software feature on the phone to limit charging to 85%, so my current schedule is easy to keep to, but if it wasn't, it probably wouldn't be worth it for me. I'd just accept that, worst case, I have to buy a $50 battery every couple of years to not have to worry about charge levels.

I wish it was as easy as just buy $50 battery. But with a waterproof phone I don't think waterproofing will be ip68 when I replace the battery and being able to just dunk my phone in water or run it under the sink when it's Dirty is so freaking easy. I do find it kinda weird that you doing 80-20 made the battery worse I think it might be just newer battery tech/software but you saying that your new phone also has the battery degrade faster than your previous phone makes me wonder if maybe manufacturers are already doing 80-20 in the software maybe and mapping 80 to 100 and 20 to 0. And that charging it more often is worse than just doing 100% and charging it less. I think I am definitely going to need to setup some experiment to figure it out. And maybe going to ask honor for advice. Thank you for sharing this information.

Waterproofing isn't some alchemy. In terms of modern phones it's just using more glue.

I would take the parent poster's experience as definitely anecdotal/coincidental. A lot of factors can cause a battery to degrade faster, beyond just faster charging or doing full charge cycles. For instance, simply using the wrong kind of case (say, something like a heavy-duty Otterbox case) could cause heat to build up and reduce battery health. It could even be caused by a cheap or non-compliant USB cable..

If you want some real battery facts, check out the Battery University, it should have all the info you're after.

I would take the parent poster’s experience as definitely anecdotal/coincidental. A lot of factors can cause a battery to degrade faster, beyond just faster charging or doing full charge cycles.

Exactly, that's what I was getting at. Personally, I've concluded that there are too many factors outside of my control to warrant worrying about it too much.

I wish it was as easy as just buy $50 battery. But with a waterproof phone I don’t think waterproofing will be ip68 when I replace the battery

@plotting_homelab@lemmy.world fair enough. I've never made use of the waterproofing features on any phone I've owned. I think my previous ones didn't even have any to being with...